Contributing to the kernel while being employed
Quoted 7 lines · Wichert Akkerman
Quoted 1 line · Previously Anuradha Ratnaweera
Before working for a commercial organization, one usually has to sign
a
Quoted 3 lines
contract which makes all the work done during the period of employment (including innovations, "hobby" coding done during "after hours") copyrighted by the employer. This introduces various problems when
one
Quoted 8 lines
Quoted 1 line
wishes to do open source development, especially as a hobby.
If you signed a contract which said that you might be out of luck, depending on you local law. If your law allows a company to demand ownership of everything you do in your own time without using company resources than you can't work on open source projects unless your employer allows you to. Personally, I would never sign any contract with a clause like that.
What if the employer _is_ interested in contributing to the open source under company copyright and doesn't mind using company resources, but the employee prefers to keep copyright to himself. The only way he can do it is by using his own resources and time (off hours). But this is not possible if there is a contract that coveres the full employment period, including after hours.
The reason why I wanted to bring up this matter was to figure out the possibility of doing open source work purely as hobby. One can't use his company name for _that_. When the company name is used, it is no longer a hobby. ;-)
Anuradha
Quoted 6 lines
What if the employer _is_ interested in contributing to the open source under company copyright and doesn't mind using company resources, but the employee prefers to keep copyright to himself. The only way he can do it is by using his own resources and time (off hours). But this is not possible if there is a contract that coveres the full employment period, including after hours.
Why do you want the copyright? So you can sue in case of violation? If so, then giving both yourself and your employer copyright might help ...
M.
I don't understand laws.
What you guys think about this ?
Labor Code section 2870 of the State of California:
"Any provision in an employment agreement which provides that an employee shall assign or offer to assign any of his or her rights in an invention to his or her employer shall not apply to an inventory that the employee developed entirely on his or her own time without using the employer's equipment, supplies, facilities, or trade secret information..."
henrique
Quoted 18 lines · Martin J. Bligh
Quoted 6 lines
What if the employer _is_ interested in contributing to the open source under company copyright and doesn't mind using company resources, but the employee prefers to keep copyright to himself. The only way he can do it is by using his own resources and time (off hours). But this is not possible if there is a contract that coveres the full employment period, including after hours.
Why do you want the copyright? So you can sue in case of violation? If so, then giving both yourself and your employer copyright might help ...
M.
-
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to [email protected]
More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
Yes, those contracts normally have an exclusion clause for CA, which has much more sensible laws (in this case ;-))
M.
[email protected] wrote (on Wednesday, July 30, 2003 09:58:02 -0700):
Quoted 36 lines
I don't understand laws.
What you guys think about this ?Labor Code section 2870 of the State of California:
"Any provision in an employment agreement which provides that an employee shall assign or offer to assign any of his or her rights in an invention to his or her employer shall not apply to an inventory that the employee developed entirely on his or her own time without using the employer's equipment, supplies, facilities, or trade secret information..."
henrique
Quoted 18 lines · Martin J. Bligh
Quoted 6 lines
What if the employer _is_ interested in contributing to the open source under company copyright and doesn't mind using company resources, but the employee prefers to keep copyright to himself. The only way he can do it is by using his own resources and time (off hours). But this is not possible if there is a contract that coveres the full employment period, including after hours.
Why do you want the copyright? So you can sue in case of violation? If so, then giving both yourself and your employer copyright might help ...
M.
-
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to [email protected]
More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
Quoted 4 lines · Martin J. Bligh
Yes, those contracts normally have an exclusion clause for CA, which has much more sensible laws (in this case ;-))
M.
It is generally not a good idea to even think about the piece of paper you were forced to sign when you got the job. The contents of that piece of paper are generally not enforceable because your signature was, obviously, obtained under duress. You either sign the paper or you don't get the job.
In general, if your conscience is clear, you will have no problem --but you don't run up and down the corridors advertising that you "gave something away" to Linux. Instead, with the utmost of professional integrity, you do what you can, when you can. Your company expects that you will contribute 110% of your time to the company. This leaves -10% for your laundry and Linux.
Cheers,
Dick Johnson
Penguin : Linux version 2.4.20 on an i686 machine (797.90 BogoMips).
Note 96.31% of all statistics are fiction.